There has to be a chair. And a view. And air. OK, those are the core elements for a great writing spot. I’ve tried lots of others—conventional desks (which are ok, if you’re worried about productivity and that sort of thing,) airports, camping, slouching on couches, rocking chairs—all of them. Each has its benefits and drawbacks but the combination of factors I keep coming back to, the perfect storm of writing spot elements is a couple of logs that I cobbled together to make a very comfortable chair, planted next to a fire, overlooking a river, near the woods.

I took down an 18” river birch tree a while ago and designed this simple two-piece leaner that fits my lumps and bumps nicely. The pine stump required a little dirt smear to keep the sap from gluing down my shoes, but now it works great to relax my feet and to elevate my knees to “work-surface” height.

We’re blessed to back up to a pretty green patch of woods here in Franklin, Tennessee, filled with tall silver maple trees, white and black oaks, hackberries, chestnuts, elms, black walnuts and the occasional pawpaw tree. The Harpeth River weaves through the forest, casting a beautiful shimmer, sporadically slithering up to kiss the back of our house when the Lord is willing and the creek does rise!

There are deer and there are dogs walking their people around the edges here and there, but mostly, it’s just me when I start early—my best part of the day. Building a little fire just goes with my cup of coffee, something to get started and rev up my brain. The warmth helps on cooler Tennessee mornings as the ground fog burns off.

I set my Tervis down after a few hot sips, look at the river, feel the sun, smell the fire, open my laptop and start writing. When my senses are full, it can just flow. I have all that beauty that God provided and yet it can go out of focus while ideas come and go. Sometimes they flow so fast that I don’t really filter, on a first draft at least. I imagine God has a lot to do with that as well.

I’ve written a great deal of my recent novel, Sell Montana in that very spot, lost in that setting. My chair just seems to prime the pump for me and I get more done, enjoying the process. At the very least, it makes a great picture, right? I took that picture myself, after I set up my iPhone on a ten second timer and had to rush back, sit down, grab my laptop and look relaxed, all in the blink of an eye. It took about six or seven tries until I got this picture, with the fire licking the right way and the pic still showing the moon setting over the trees. That was a great morning—one to write about!

But I’ve also written many pages in crowded airports with people buzzing by, walking their roller bags, noisy overhead announcements and a variety of competing smells. Headphones help blot out the distractions of civilization. Almost. The truth is that I can get lost in the words there almost as effectively as my quiet spot. We have to adapt sometimes to create our own environment in order to produce quality work. And that’s the message. My novel wasn’t any better because I have an amazing backyard surrounded by nature as my writing location. It was just nicer for me during the process. Let the creativity drive the work—not the environment or other outside factors. Knock down those distractions and claim those spaces for your own. Then create, even if your river is a stream of people running to catch their flights.

Where’s your favorite spot to create?

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